The present invention relates to electric power plant steam turbines and more particularly to systems and methods for operating such turbines in such a way that changes in the turbine operating system can be flexibly and conveniently instituted.
In the operation of steam turbines in electric power plants, it is necessary to control the steam flow to the turbine so as to control the turbine speed and load and to do so in such a manner as to protect the turbine against damage. A large number of parameters are associated with the control system for the steam valves and overspeed and other protection control systems typically supplied with power plant turbines. Characteristically, such control systems have been supplied to customers with the great bulk of system parameters fixed by system design in electronic or electrohydraulic apparatus and typically with only a limited number of input demand parameters such as load and speed and rate demands and valve position being readily adjustable by simple switching operations to achieve control actions directed to satisfy the input demand. More extensive parameter adjustability has generally been or can be provided by the use of extensive switching circuitry or by the use of a digital computer, but there has been lacking in the electric power plant turbine art any specific application of such parameter adjustability so that in effect some restructuring of the turbine operating system can be flexibly achieved in accordance with empirically determined knowledge after the turbine has been manufactured and placed in the field for use in electric power generation.
The description of prior art herein is made on good faith and no representation is made that any prior art considered is the best pertaining prior art nor that the interpretation placed on it is unrebuttable.